Morning journal and courier., 1887-03-03
ooNvULsIoNs OF NATURE.


 A Graphic Account of the Recent Re-
 markabIe Earth Disturbances and
 Volcanic EruPtfOns i'm the Sandwich
 IsIands-The Wonderful Fire FOun-
 tafns.
 MT. M. M. G ower of this city, formerly resident of the Sandwich Islands and who read a very interesting paper recently in reference to the islands before our Historical concerning the recent remarkable volcanic eruptions of Mauna Loa and accompanying convulsions of terra frma:
 Late Honolulu papers give very full and graphic accounts of the late volcanic erup- tions of Mauna Loa and the violent earth quake shocks accompanying them. Like some previous eruptions, it di6 not come out anywhere near the summit of Nauna Loa, but thirty miles down the southern slope, twenty miles north of the south point of Hawaii. Its vent was quite near the great flow of 1868 and it's track to the sea nearly parallel with that, but to the northwest of it.
 MT. c. N. Spencer, near neighbor of this as we'll as of the other flow, gives one of the best accounts of it, in which he says: "Jan. 23.-Since l last wrote Pele has been and still is very active. From 3 8. m. of the 18th till D. m. the 18th we had no less than SIS earthquakes, and at that hour the volcano burst out. The distance from the crater to the sea is about eighteen miles. During the first twenty-four hours the crater-a long fissure-ejected thick lava and the movement was sluggish, perhaps mile and half per hour; but on the 20th the lava was more liquid and flowed at the rate of twenty five miles per hour. The flow is far greater than that of 1868 and very different in character. I visited the flow last Thursday (20th) and must say it was the most awfully grand sight I ever witnessed. At the crater there were fifteen fountains of molten lava, the highest of which we estimated to be about 200 feet. The side of the mountain for a width of two miles was one vast sheet of liquid, blood red fire, while close in front of us was a rushing, roar ing river of molten lava, bearing on it's surface boulders weighing tons. Explosions of pent up gases were constant, sending up columns of smoke at times 800 feet high. While we were there we had hail, vivid lightning and very heavy thun. der. It looked from our standpoint as If hell itself was rapidly changing it's geograph- ical position making for itself a hablta- ton locally and near at hand. Our Portu- guese laborers the plantation were terribly frightened The women were crying and praying and the men calling on the saints for protection. I took Mrs. Spencer to in N-0~ -'---s3 NA0-- quiet them"
 'Jan. 24th.-The flow of lava has nearly stopped and we are having fearful shaking up. Since last evening we have had 8 frightful series of earth quakes, and they still continue. done, but the stone walls have suffered se- verely and large amount of crockery has been broken"
 Another writer says: 'EThe lava is still pouring into the sea and another flow has started down the mountain, bursting out farther up the mountain than the first. The shocks have been constant in the Kau dis trict and have done great damage, while se- we're shocks have been felt all over Hawaii. One of the hamlets of Kau reports every house moved off it's foundations and the con tents smashed, while eight houses were burn ed from the overturning of lamps by the vibrations Stone walls all over the district are fiat and the crockery in every house has ceased to exist. One man reports only seven plates left and his stove in pieces, and others tell the same story Fortunately the houses are all of wood and no lives have been lost, though the loss of is considerable. f'Mr. D. H. Hitch cock, of Hilo writes January 27: "Ever since early in December last there has been steady increase in the number and violence of the shocks. But on Saturday, January 16, about midnight came the heaviest shock yet felt. The motion was long and Wavy from little west of south to the east of north. That night the summit crater of Mauna Loa blazed forth for few hours and and not long after the heavens were lighted with 8 very brilliant reflection from the lava as it burst out far down the southern slope of the mountain in Kau and ran into the sea near South Point" (The shock above mentioned was severe enough
 
 distant, to wake everyone out of sound sleep.) MT. H. continues: "We were, however, greatly astonished on Sunday last, when the earth again began to be nervous, and when shock after shock came in the evening, each harder and more violent than the last, all hands began to think that the shocks of 1868 were to be repeated, and many took to their wide verandas to be ready for the next one. In twenty minutes nine shocks were felt, two of them violent enough to throw down dishes, stop clocks, upset stoves, etc, etc." Hilo is nearly sixty miles from the flow, of which this is only feeble account. At last dates, Feb. 15, grave 1oubts existed as to whether Pele (goddess of has suspended labor for the sea- ,on. or 'sonly for refreshmsnt" or to 'sopen in another degree" But this is old Hiram's preserves and 1 must not encroach.
 In 1868 the great earthquake threw down every stone building in the district, and few ,r none of those were rebuilt. The well-to- 10 natives build more or less pretentious rame cottages well braced to hold up against the gales of wind that blow from ! northeast in all seasons but winter, where l he ''sou'westers" settle up old scores with | interest in hurry. Hence while in the late | shocks many houses were moved from the foundations, few or none fell, and there were no masses of brick, stone and mortar o entrap and kill the escaping inmates, z ill they were literally dumped out of the windows or doors. Very few of the country houses have neither cellars or chimneys, the | kitchen being, in general, very small de- ached building.
 Mrs. Spencer might we'll have been ex- used from further attendance upon the hops" and "seances" of Madam "Pele'' sfter what she experienced of them in 1868 n the same district. But circumstances nave changed wonderfully in nineteen years Then the southern part of Hawaii was, as 'ne said, F'only fit for goat pasture" and ts only industries fo1 very few white men were confined to the very few stock ranches hen just beginning to thrive, while the bus ness of the district (as large as New Haven | ounty) was all in the one store of MT. S., where he exchanged all manner of Yankee l goods (but not drop of liq- lor) and quantities of very hard cash with l he Hawaiians for hides, goat skins, fungus l rom the decaying candle nut tree and 'spu u" from the forests of tree ferns in the mountains.
 But to-day some of the finest sugar planta- ions on Hawaii have been started as if by magic under the energetic hand and the po- ent aid of Americans and American capital md so 1t comes to pass that lovely woman with white face becomes a "ministering ngel'' to the poor superstitious men, women md children who have gone there from Port l lgal and the Western or Azores Islands to ultivate the waving fields of rich sugar cane, lotting the green slopes of Mauna Loa and the black tracks of desolation, made by innumerable outbursts of lava in past ages Fortunately fer them the track | if this last flow, as we'll as that of1S6S, was l ,ver the uninhabited and nearly waste tracks | if comparatively recent flows, most of which | s but very little decomposed and ! n places only covered with grass md scrubby trees and shrubs. ! The strong trade-wind which always blows | iercely across the high ridge called Kahuku | makes it safe to come very near the stream l md see it as well as the fifteen fire fountains | which feed it in all their wonderful glory
 The speed and comfort with which tour | o Hawaii can now be made in palace cars to | Frisco and palatial steamers of the Oceanic |